The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-20
Correspondence.
TEXAS LETTER.

MINERAL W ELLIS, TEXAS, Aug. 10, 1887.
To the Editor of The Universalist:
am sorry to have to report that our
prohibition movement in Texas came to
grief. The election was held on the 4th
inst; we we're defeated by from 10000 to
$4,000 Notes.-The official count will prob
ably reach the latter figures. The Dem
ocratic party, the dominant party in the
State, was divided, about Copper cent of it
for prohibition; the colored vote and the
German vote, which is principally Repub-
licsn, was almost solidly against us; the
American white Republican vote, which
constitutes about 20 per cent of the Re-
publican vote Of the State, was for pro-
hibition-ignorance and the foreign ele-
ment defeated us.
The writer was actively engaged in the
canvass, delivering about fifty speeches
and holding a number of joint discus
sions, of course on the prohibition side
of the question. Early in the cam
paign I spoke at some of the principal
Dallas at the end of each week in time to
hold our regular Sunday service of the
First Universalist Church OF that place,
until after the first Sunday in July, when
the pastor was granted a vacation by the
church, until the fret Sunday in Septem-
Der. After the vacation was granted, my
field was in Southern Texas, under the
direction Of the State Prohibition Exec
utive Committee.
Starting at Crawford on the 9Th of
July, in McLennsn county, on the line of
Santa Fe Railway, went south as far
as Richmond, in Fort Bend county, stop
ping and delivering addresses at inter-
vening towns. Thence went west, on
the line of the Mexican Central Railway,
through Wharton, Victoria and Dewitt
counties spending three days in each
county, as far ss the town of Cicero;
thence on the line of the Arkansas Pass
Railway to Hallettsville, La Voccs coun-
ty. Intsrsecting the Southern Pacific
Railway at Columbus, my route was
again west, to San Antonio, taking in
the towns of Lagrange, Schulenberg, Fla
tonia, Luling and Sequine, reaching San
Antonio on the I'd inst. On the evening
of the Sd, delivered my last address,
two hundred miles north of San Antonio,
at my old home, Waco, to an audience
of not less than 5000 people-it was vari-
ously estimated at from five to seven
thousand. took the train that night
and reached Dallas early on the morning
of the 4th.
The Campaign
was one of the most remarkable in the
history of the State. The ablest talent
of the State was engaged on both sides.
The "Antis" took the position that the
amendment was an invasion of the per-
sonal liberty of the citizen; but few if
any of their orators were advocates of
the liquor traffic; they were as loud in
their denunciations of the evils growing
out it, as were the prohibitionists. There
fore, although the result of the campaign
was the defeat of prohibition, yet senti-
ment of law and order was developed
which five years of temperance work
could not have accomplished. From one
end of the State to the other the people
are aroused, and there are now few places
in Texas which will permit an open viola
ton of law on the part of saloon men, as
has heretofore been the case. The Sun
day law in nearly every part of the State
is being rigidly enforced, in places where
it has for years been disregarded.